Literally, chivalry means: “The sum of a knight's ideal qualifications, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and skill at arms (random). Chivalry is best known from the Middle Ages; the time of knights and kings. There was even something known as the knight's code of chivalry. All knights were expected to sympathize with the elderly and orphans, never accept a reward, always strive to help others, always obey authority, protect the honor of their fellow knights, compete against injustice, always keep the faith , never lie or deceive anyone, respect women, and never refuse a challenge (Knights). The knights of the Middle Ages lived according to 12 points which were faith, charity, justice, sagacity, prudence, temperance, resolution, truth, liberality, diligence, hope and valor (Knights). Most people today think that chivalry and honor are non-existent, but in reality these things are still abundantly present in our lives, they are just not taken as seriously as they were in the Middle Ages. If you pay attention to movies in our culture today, most of them show some sort of chivalry, honor, courage, or loyalty. In the film 300, it begins with messengers from the Persian army telling Sparta to bow down under the rule of King Xerxes. . Leonidas, the leader of the Spartan army, goes to the Ephors, ancient priests suffering from leprosy, to obtain permission to go to war with Persia (Gordon). Even though Leonidas knew that the Persian army numbered thousands of soldiers, he went into battle with only 300 men demonstrating great courage. He knows it is certainly a battle that no Spartan will survive, but he wants to convince the Spartan council to unite the city-states around them to fight Persia and keep his friends and family safe (Gordon). The knight... in the middle of the card... and in doing so he also risks his own life. Luckily, the hitman who killed his uncle saves him as he feels guilty about killing his uncle (Stormbreaker). Chivalry, honor, courage and loyalty are the main things that knights lived by and apparently so do we. Courage and honor require courage, honesty and integrity while chivalry and loyalty require generosity and (casual) loyalty. Both Leonidas and Alex Rider showed many of these things. This shows that chivalry, honor, loyalty and courage are not dead and are present in our films and literature today. Np, nd Web. May 26, 2010. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: Unabridged 2005. Print.Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker. Walker Books, 3-7-2006. Press.